ON WAY OUT?

 

12:00 - 25 February 2008

 

Jimmy Calderwood is preparing to axe at least 10 players in a major Pittodrie purge this summer.

 

The Dons boss has finally lost patience with his flops following the dire 3-1 defeat to Kilmarnock at Rugby Park.

 

Aberdeen's sudden slump has seen them slip to ninth in the table, 11 points behind third placed Motherwell who also have two games in hand. Calderwood said: "It's now quite clear I have a major rebuilding job on my hands."

 

Dutch trio Karim Touzani, Dave Bus and Jeffrey de Visscher are likely to be under threat.

 

Steve Lovell will lead the mass exodus in the close season along with Dan Smith while Stuart Duff, Lee Mair and the experienced Jackie McNamara could also go.

 

Calderwood would love to keep loan stars Josh Walker and Sone Aluko but the teen pair will return to England this summer.

 

He added: "The performances we are producing right now aren't good enough for Aberdeen Football Club.

 

"We've set high standards but they have slipped drastically and I won't settle for second best.

 

"You learn from every game and it's now apparent we need to make big changes.

 

"Playing at a great club like Aberdeen comes with extra expectation levels.

 

"It takes a certain person to handle that and sometimes some individuals can only go so far as a player.

 

"Maybe a few have been punching above their weight but are now being found and when that happens it's time for surgery.

 

"I'm preparing for a massive turnaround and it's looking like I'll be into double figures in terms of the number of departures."

 

Calderwood stayed in Glasgow last night as he heads south of the border to trawl the lower leagues for fresh talent.

 

Jimmy Nicholl and Sandy Clark will also head off on scouting missions in a bid to net new players.

 

And Willie Miller has promised his manager will be given cash to fund his red revolution.

 

"I'm off on my travels again trying to make inroads into strengthening the team," said Calderwood.

 

"I'll be in England tonight taking in games as we step up our search for fresh talent.

 

"I've got a chance to look at some games coming up and we'll be watching a lot more in the coming months.

 

"That's because we need to improve the quality we have to get us back up to where we want to be in terms of our league position."

 

Calderwood made several changes for the Killie clash including handing keeper Derek Soutar a shock recall.

 

The former Dundee man is expected to retain his place for Wednesday's match with Motherwell at Pittodrie despite losing three goals at Rugby Park.

 

"Derek's display didn't have anything to do with us losing three goals," said Calderwood.

 

"He couldn't do anything to stop them as it was just very bad defending.

 

"It's up to Derek if he wants to keep his place in the side but I can't blame him at all for what happened against Kilmarnock."

If we can get 350k from the sale of Hart and Clark, then I reckon we can easily get 2million from the sale of the ten or so players that JC doesnae want.

 

For a start, strip the captaincy armband fae Severin and gie it to Diamond, a man who can actually command his team from all over the park ... and nae just greet cos somebody else got the shirt he wanted against Bayern. Demoting that loon to just regular grunt player might be what he needs to start playing well again.

 

I think we're resigned to losing Miller and Nicholson. Let's face it, Miller never wanted to be with us in the first place. Otherwise he would've chosen us over Bristol four years ago. He came to us eventually cos he didnae get his contract at Hearts and was a waste of space at Tannalice. Dinnae care how much potential he's got, he's actually WORSE than Mackie for his goalscoring record. Which brings me onto ...

 

Mackie! Somebody have the balls to kick this little shit out of Pittodrie. I dinnae care if he's fae Kemnay. I dinnae care if he's our top scorer. He's missed FAR FAR FAR too many efforts to call himself an SPL-standard striker.

 

The only players I think are worth keeping are: Langfield, Diamond, Severin, Lovell, Walker, Aluko and Jamie Smith. My own memories of Maybury are enough to believe we should sign him in the summer. But I may be wrong based on what I read about him from the Killie match. The rest ... they can all fuck off!

If we can get 350k from the sale of Hart and Clark, then I reckon we can easily get 2million from the sale of the ten or so players that JC doesnae want.

 

Except Hart and Clark were semi decent players  and the folk we are going to try and flog off are barely even footballers. There is no way we would accumulate anywhere near 2 million for players like Byrne and D Smith!